Royal Caribbean went live with the 'cruise planner' for Quantum bookings this morning. It was previously open to selected guests and agents but now, if you have a Quantum booking, you can go ahead with your dinner reservations.

It is essentially the same process as used for making specialty and 'my time' dining reservations on their other ships, just expanded and it does have sample menus. It also has the drawbacks of the original booking system in that for any extra-fee dining you have to enter your credit card info and address each time. I wish they'd allow a set of reservations to be made and then just check out one time.

I received a call from RCI over a month ago inviting me to pre book my dinner options for my Quantum sailing. The process was easy and took about 15 minutes. The rep asked what restaurants and times I wanted to dine and we booked them. I also booked one night in the Chops Grille. I'm excited about how this is going to work. Looking forward to Dynamic Dining.

Some entertainment opened up today for reservations. I was able to get Mamma Mia for a matinee show at 2PM, which will be a nice way to kill an afternoon at sea. I reserved some other show that is 45 minutes long named Sonic Odyssey for day 7 at 9pm. This conflicts a little with our dinner plans for that night (the Solarium Bistro "Devinly Decadent") which is scheduled from 7:15 to 9:15, assuming the dinner takes 2 full hours. I tried three times today to adjust the dinner time and when I got to the final submit button it locked up and wouldn't take the new reservation. I'll try again later.

They also have to unnamed entertainment selections to choose, and they are simply "#1" and "#2" so they have not finalized them yet.

I also was able to reserve my shows yesterday. I've got Mama Mia scheduled on departure day. It's 2 1/2 hours long, brutal. On our sailing there are 3 unknown guest entertainers. I booked those along with Sonic Odyssey and the comedy show. Shaping up to be a very fun cruise.

I know what you mean about Mamma Mia. 2.5 hours ? Is the Broadway version that long?

I booked the mysterious "Entertainer #1" and "Entertainer #2" today I'm hoping those are just being kept under wraps until they can trot the details out at the next big 'reveal' media event. Maybe one of them will be perennial Royal Caribbean favorite "El Gaucho"! (I actually like his shows)

Anthem is open for booking but the site has been down since it launched on Thursday. It's being fixed and should be available in the next couple of days. Seeing Anthem is just under a year away to be launched, it's not a panic yet.